


Victory and Betrayal

by Golddude22



Series: Jaig Eyes (Pirate AU) [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:36:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28629660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golddude22/pseuds/Golddude22
Summary: The story of how Bo-Katan came to be with the Jaig Eyes.
Relationships: Bo-Katan Kryze & Satine Kryze
Series: Jaig Eyes (Pirate AU) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2098038
Comments: 12
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This, and the next story are prequels to our main fic, Rise of the Cartels.

As Bo-Katan marched up the steps to Sundari palace, she couldn't help the smirk that formed on her face as she looked up at the impressive structure.

After two years of some of the most brutal fighting Mandalore had ever seen, the palace and Mandalore itself was finally theirs again.

It'd been a costly fight and they'd lost so many family and friends, but now, they could start rebuilding, recovering and making Mandalore stronger than ever.

Something she had no doubt her sister would succeed at doing, after all, she'd survived a year on the run, being hunted by bounty hunters from across the galaxy with only a pair of Jedi to protect her.

Compared to that, ruling Mandalore should be easy, she thought as walked past the guards and into the throne room.

A room that for the last month had been crammed with their supporters, commanders, advisors and hundred others that had made their victory possible. Now, it was empty except for Satine, who sat slumped in the throne at the far end of the room and by the looks of it, had fallen asleep too.

Smirking again, Bo-Katan walked up to her and gently nudged her shoulder.

Satine jerked awake, straight into a combat stance as only living on the front lines for years could teach you, only to relax when she saw who it was.

“Bo, don't do that to me,” she hissed, punching her sister on the shoulder.

Bo-Katan laughed.

“You should thank me, what if someone had walked in and seen our great leader passed out with exhaustion barely a month into her rule.”

“I just closed my eyes for a minute,” she muttered, a hand moving to rub her stomach. “And I haven't been feeling so great the last few days.”

“Oh, have you had it checked?” Bo-Katan asked, concern in her voice.

“Yes, the doctor said it's nothing to worry about,” Satine replied firmly, though there was something shifty about her expression when she added “I just need to get some more rest than I've been getting.”

“Uh-huh,” Bo-Katan replied dubiously, then her expression turned contemplative and an evil grin spread over her face. “And I bet you miss your Jedi too.”

“WHAT! No!” Satine practically shouted, face flushing red as Bo-Katan cackled.

“It's okay, I won't tell anyone. Besides, he was a very cute Jedi,” Bo-Katan grinned.

“I hate you,” Satine muttered, burying her face in her hands.

“No you don't,” she smirked back, patting her sister on the shoulder. “So when are you going to see him again?”

At that, Satine tensed up, but didn't say anything.

“What? He's not coming back?” Bo-Katan hissed.

“No,” Satine said miserably, then she shook herself and straightened. “We both have our duties and responsibilities and I wouldn't ask him to give up his for me and he would never ask me to do that either,” she went on, using the voice she usually reserved for meeting their advisers and giving statements.

“But-”

“No, as a leader of a world, I must put the greater good over what I want for myself,” Satine said firmly. “As a Jedi, he must do the same.”

“But that doesn't mean you have to be miserable while you do it,” Bo-Katan argued. “You can have a life and still rule a planet.”

“An ordinary planet perhaps, but this is Mandalore and you know what our people are like, a mild insult is enough to start a war in some areas.”

“True,” Bo-Katan conceded grudgingly.

“Which is why I'm going to need your help if this is going to work,” Satine went on, looking at her hopefully and nervously, something that never boded well.

“If what is going to work?” She asked.

“My plan for a new Mandalore,” Satine said. “A peaceful Mandalore.”

Bo-Katan laughed, then she saw Satine's expression, she was serious.

“That's ridiculous, Mandalore's not peaceful, we're warriors, fighting is in our blood.”

“I know, but we can be so much more than that, and I know that if we can convince the clans to give up their warrior ways, we can build a Mandalore that's better for everyone.”

“Listen to yourself,” Bo-Katan hissed, starting to get angry. “Being a warrior is what makes us Mandalorian and asking the clans to give up what makes us who we are is not going to achieve anything except starting a new war, but this time you won't have nearly as many allies.”

“Not this time,” Satine shot back. “Everyone's sick of the constant fighting, I know I can convince them to do this for the good of Mandalore.”

“And then what? We all become farmers?” Bo-Katan shouted angrily.

“I don't know,” Satine admitted. “But that's something we can discuss when all the clan leaders arrive next week to discuss the plan. Together, I'm sure sure we can come up with something that makes everyone happy.”

“Yeah, just letting us keep our history and culture alive,” Bo-Katan growled.

“What is your problem?” Satine demanded. “This is for the good of Mandalore, why can't you see that?”

“Because while you were off gallivanting with your Jedi, all us warriors were fighting to reclaim your throne, now you just want to cast us aside like we don't matter anymore.”

“You do matter,” Satine shot back. “But Mandalore doesn't need warriors anymore, we need people who can help rebuild our world into something more than just a wasteland of forgotten battles and blood stained lands.”

“And what happens when another enemy comes along and decides to conquer us, what good will words and peaceful intentions do then?”

“We have no other enemies, so unless you plan on going out there and making more, I think we'll be just fine!” Satine shouted.

“I won't need to!” Bo-Katan shouted back. “When you make Mandalore weak, they'll be lining up!”

“We won't be weak,” Satine retorted. “We'll be stronger than ever.”

“How?” Bo-Katan laughed derisively. “If we go down the path you want, we won't have a single warrior to protect us.”

“There are other ways to defend yourself besides fighting, though I wouldn't expect a hot head like you to understand,” Satine yelled, making Bo-Katan take a step back at her ferocity.

“Is that how you think of me,” Bo-Katan said quietly. “Just another grunt that got you into power?”

“No, Bo, that's not what I meant,” Satine sighed, reaching out consoling hand, that Bo-Katan shook off and backed away. “You're my sister, you're the only family I have left, I need you on my side for this, please, just trust me one more time,” she begged.

But Bo-Katan wasn't having any of it.

“And then what? Once Mandalore is weaponless, you won't need us anymore and you'll just toss us aside because we're beneath you now? Because we'll taint the image of the peaceful Mandalore you want to create.”

“No, that won't happen, we'll find new places in society for you,” Satine promised, eyes shimmering.

“HA! Doing what? Collecting rubbish? Handing out parking fines? That's not the Mandalore I fought for!”

“Then maybe there isn't a place for you on Mandalore!” Satine screamed in frustration.

Bo-Katan froze, glaring at her sister with a hatred she usually reserved for her enemies.

“So that's how it's going to be,” Bo-Katan whispered as Satine stared at her, apparently shocked at what she'd just said.

“No, Bo, I didn't mean that,” she gasped as Bo-Katan turned and began walking away.

“I think you did,” Bo-Katan replied, not looking back, not even when she heard Satine chasing after her. “But that's okay, I'll leave, like you want me to.”

“Please Bo, I'm sorry, I'm just so stressed with everything that's going on, you're the only one that's always on my side and I just...” she trailed off as she reached her sister and gripped her arm to stop her from leaving.

But she wasn't prepared for the way Bo-Katan spun around and shoved her off.

“Get off me you aruetii dar'manda,” she screamed, taking a great deal of satisfaction from the way Satine's expression crumpled and a few tears streamed down her cheeks.

Giving her one last sneer, Bo-Katan left the room, practically running, wanting to get out of there as fast as possible. She needed to talk to her warriors, see what they thought, see if they hated what Satine planned to do as much as she did. And if they did, well, there were plenty of other worlds out there they could choose from and with their skills, there wouldn't be any shortage of work in the mercenary field.

Outside, on the steps leading away from the palace, she ran into her friend and second in command, Ursa Wren.

“Hey Bo, what's got you in such a mood?” She asked with a smirk.

“Round up everyone and I'll tell you, then we have some decisions to make,” Bo-Katan retorted, not in the mood for her friend's usual games.

Ursa nodded and sent out an alert via her comm, telling what was left of their company to meet up at the barracks that was their temporary home while things settled down.

With that done, the pair of them set off at brisk pace in that direction, neither speaking as they went.

Twenty minutes later, Bo-Katan finished retelling what Satine had told her and turned to face the assembled crowd warriors, noting all of them had expressions of shock, horror and anger that mirrored her own.

“So, that's the Duchess's plan, we can either abandon our warrior ways or leave Mandalore,” she finished.

“After everything we've done, she's just going to cast us aside like that?” Ursa said in disbelief.

“It seems so,” Bo-Katan replied angrily. “Now, I'm not going to tell you what to do but I'm leaving just as soon as my ship is ready, you're all welcome to join me or you can stay here or go off and do your own thing.”

“What would we do?” One of her men asked.

“There's plenty of merc work out there and with our skills, we'll easily be able to get the top jobs,” Bo-Katan answered.

At those words, everyone began talking at once, arguing over this and that and Bo-Katan paid no attention as her people talked it out.

Eventually, Ursa told everyone to shut up and decide.

And Bo-Katan couldn't have been more proud when her people stood as one and declared they were with her.

“Thank you,” she said with a nod. “Now that that's decided, we need to make preparations and decide where we're going. And I don't think she'll try and stop us, but we should probably get off world as soon as possible, either tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest.”

Everyone made noises of agreement and began to leave, already discussing what kind of jobs they might end up doing.

Only Ursa remained behind.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“Yes, I'm fine,” Bo-Katan said shortly.

Ursa took the hint and dropped the subject.

“What about you? How do you feel about all this?” Bo-Katan asked her.

“I couldn't care less, my whole family is dead, there's nothing here for me now but bad memories,” Ursa replied.

“So you're gonna drag that weedy little runt you call a boyfriend with us?” Bo-Katan sighed.

“Yep, he can paint our victories or something,” Ursa smirked.

Bo-Katan shook her head, then jerked it at the door.

“You better go tell him that then.”

“Good point,” Ursa smirked as she ran from the room.

Bo-Katan sighed again, as much as she like Ursa, when she was around Alrich, she was just disgusting and it was painful to watch how mushy they got sometimes. Still, he made her happy, which was why she put up with him, didn't mean she had to like it though, or that she couldn't tease him whenever she felt the urge.

Smiling now, she headed for her quarters to pack up the few things she had left after the war, almost entirely weapons, aside from the small holoprojector that had the only images left of her family.

And now Satine was gone too.

Crushing those thoughts down, she quickly packed up her stuff into one bag and left her quarters, marching straight for the landing field where her ship was parked alongside the rest of her company's.

Over the next few hours, her people showed up and loaded up their ships before preparing to depart.

When the last one called in ready Bo-Katan fired up her ships engines with a last glance towards the city she'd probably never see again.

With a final sigh, she took off, racing to orbit and followed by the rest of her force.

Not noticing the small, cloaked figure standing on the edge of the pad, watching them leave with tears in her eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 4 years later...

Blaster fire rang out across the fields as Bo-Katan crouched behind the armoured transport she and her company had been hired to protect, grinning like the idiot Ursa sometimes said she was.

Up until this point the mission had gone as planned, which meant it was boring as hell. Five days spent on a simple cargo escort mission that their client had been willing to pay a small fortune to them to have it escorted safely from his vault on Muunilinst to his home on Naboo. Something that was evidently worth stealing, as the pirate gang had just demonstrated.

“How many are there?” Bo-Katan asked into her comm.

“Thirty or forty,” Ursa replied casually, unfazed by the odds against them. “And they knew it was coming but...” She trailed off and Bo-Katan could practically see her smirk. “They weren't expecting us.”

“We'd better go introduce ourselves then,” Bo-Katan replied, ejecting the clips from her blasters and ramming home new ones.

“Yeah,” Ursa snorted. “We don't want to be rude now, do we?”

“No, we have a reputation to maintain.”

That got laughs from the rest of her team, who were scattered about the impromptu battlefield, returning fire almost half heartedly, these pirates weren't particularly good.

“Alright, let 'em have it, we still have a delivery to make!” Bo-Katan shouted, leaping up from behind her cover and pouring fire into the nearest pirate position.

From all around her, the rest of her people did the same.

The pirates never had a chance.

  


* * *

  


“Another job well done Bo-KAtan,” her client told her as her team unloaded the cargo inside their client's mansion.

“Would you expect any less of us?” She asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not,” he replied. “That's why you're the best and why you get paid the best,” he said as one of his servants stepped forward with a case of credits, one that Bo-Katan took without checking, this client wasn't one they ever had to worry about cheating them.

“A pleasure as always, Senator,” she said as thanks.

“Until next time then,” he replied, waving her off as he turned to inspect his cargo.

Bo-Katan nodded, then turned and followed her people out, re-boarding their transport and heading back to the spaceport.

“Next time, we need to get a job that has more action,” Ursa complained as she sat slumped in her seat. “That was way too boring.”

“Yeah,” a few of her other people agreed.

Bo-Katan rolled her eyes.

“I thought you'd appreciate a break from all the fighting we've had in the last few missions.”

Ursa actually took her helmet off so that she could stare at Bo-Katan in disbelief.

“Are you feeling alright Bo? It sounded like you just said we could use a break from fighting,” Ursa said with mock concern, making her snort.

“I was just asking, as leader I have to make sure all my people are well rested and aren't getting overworked,” Bo-Katan replied with a grin.

“Yeah, well I'm fine, what I really need is a good fight, anything we can blow up on our way home?” She shot back.

“Let me check,” Konrad said, opening up the datapad that had a list of all their current job offers and open contracts.

“Hmm...” He mused as he scrolled through the list. “Hostage recovery on Farstine, the elimination of a gang on Zhar, contracts for either side in the Radnoran civil war, disrupting a slave ring on Leritor...”

“Yes, that one,” Ursa exclaimed, turning to Bo-Katan. “Can we Bo, please?”

“I don't see why not,” Bo-Katan agreed. “I need some action too.”

There were cheers from all her people and Bo-Katan shook her head, she was starting to understand why most other people thought Mandalorians were crazy, who else got excited about going into battle.

Who was she kidding, she thought as she looked around at her people, they were crazy.

Sighing to herself, she called up their ship to inform her people that had stayed behind to guard it of their change of plans.

And though she was expecting it, the resounding cheers that came back across her comm still caught her by surprise.

  


* * *

  


“I count sixty-five slavers,” Bo-Katan whispered, even though she was almost a kilometre away from the camp they were watching and it was pouring with rain. A camp that had been identified as part of a larger slave ring that operated in this sector, one that their employer, a charitable organization that freed and helped resettle former slaves, wanted... taken care of. Something they were only too happy to help with.

 _“Sixty-eight,”_ Ursa corrected. _“There's three more on the south side, behind the armoury.”_

“Copy that,” Bo-Katan replied, adding that information to the tactical map she was building on her datapad, something that her entire team could see and add to as their four teams watched the base from every angle. “And by the looks of things all the slaves are either in that large shed or that prison block on the east side.”

 _“Affirmative,”_ Ursa replied. _“That'll make things easier,”_ she added to grunts of agreement.

 _“Not particularly well armed either,”_ Konrad said from where his squad was positioned to the west. _“They're not packing anything heavier than a few heavy blasters.”_

Ursa groaned.

_“I thought this would be a good fight.”_

_“Tie one hand behind your back then,”_ Someone else suggested.

 _“Don't think I won't,”_ Ursa shot back.

“Cut the chatter,” Bo-Katan ordered. “Move into position, we attack in thirty minutes.”

She got various acknowledgements back and waved her squad forward, moving low through the undergrowth that covered the hillside they'd taken up position on, descending down to the level of the camp, alert for any sign of alarm from the slavers.

But they weren't the smartest bunch and they easily made it right to the edge of their camp without being discovered.

And there they waited, watching the clock count down till it was only thirty seconds before they attacked.

“Ten seconds,” Bo-Katan whispered, taking aim at the nearest group of slavers, who were sitting around a fire, sharing a bottle of something.

“Five, four, three, two...”

Instead of saying one, she simply opened fire, catching two of the slavers in the chest and blowing them backwards. Before the others could react, they were killed by the rest of her squad as they stormed into the camp, blasters spitting death to anything that moved that wasn't in armour.

The slavers put up pitiful resistance, firing blindly at anything that moved in the pouring rain, hitting more of their own than anything else and giving away their positions to the Mandalorians that were hunting them.

Very quickly, all the slavers that had been outside were killed and the survivors, about twenty of them, had holed up inside the command centre with their leader.

The command centre that was now surrounded by eighteen battle hardened warriors, all eager to burst in and shoot the lot of them.

Bo-Katan stood back and watched, letting her people have their fun as they kicked in the doors and lobbed several grenades of various kinds inside.

A number of the slavers came screaming out and were quickly shot, the rest cried out in shock and pain as the stun and flash grenades went off, screams that were quickly silenced when her people stormed the room.

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

There was one last blaster shot.

“Clear!”

“Is that all of them?” Bo-Katan asked as she stepped inside.

“Yep,” Ursa confirmed. “Sixty-eight dead slavers.”

“Good work, let's get the slaves freed then we can get off this miserable world,” Bo-Katan said, walking back out again.

“Copy that,” Ursa said, directing half their team to the large shed, while the rest followed Bo-Katan to the prison block.

The doors quickly yielded to Konrad's efforts and rushed inside, blasters drawn, just in case they'd missed a slaver or two.

But the room was clear, so they set to work freeing the slaves, mainly Twi'lek's and humans with a few others from various species, who looked back with fear and a little bit of hope.

“No need to be afraid,” Bo-Katan told them, removing her helmet. “We're here to free you.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, then all the slaves began cheering and crying and hugging the Mandalorians as they released them from their cells, before rushing outside to get their first taste of freedom, as Bo-Katan sent the prearranged signal to the charity, alerting their ship in orbit that it was clear for them to come in and pickup the newly released slaves.

As the last one left the prison and her team followed them out, Bo-Katan noticed that there was still one slave in the cell down the far end, a little Twi'lek girl by the looks of it, who was curled up in a ball and was crying quietly.

“Are you alright there?” She asked, kneeling down beside her and gently placing her hand on the girl's back.

“I don't know where my parents are,” she whimpered in basic, but with a very strong Ryl accent.

“If you come with me, I'll help you find them,” Bo-Katan promised, holding out her other hand. “I'm Bo-Katan by the way, what's your name?”

“Della,” the girl said with a sniffle as she took the offered hand and Bo-Katan pulled her up with her as they stood up.

“Come on, I'm sure they're just in the other building, my team should be freeing them now.”

“Okay,” she nodded, bottom lip still trembling.

They walked outside, hand in hand, until they reached the spot where all the slaves were gathering.

“Can you see them anywhere?” Bo-Katan asked as what looked like the last of them walked over from the shed.

“Um... no,” Della whispered, sounding miserable.

“How about now?” Bo-Katan asked, picking up the girl so that she could get a better view of things.

Della looked around desperately again, looking more and more upset when she couldn't find them, until she froze, staring at something intently.

“PAPA!” she screamed and Bo-Katan set her down, watching as the girl took off towards the dark blue Twi'lek she'd spotted on the far side of the group, leaping into his arms when she reached him and all but disappearing in the hug that followed.

Bo-Katan turned away from the scene, feeling a pang of sadness she couldn't quite identify as the sound of engines filled the air.

Looking up, she saw the transport ship from the End Slavery charity descend and land on the outskirts of the camp.

“There's your ride folks,” Bo-Katan told the former slaves. “Your new lives await you.”

Excitedly, they all headed in that direction, talking amongst themselves about what they were going to do now that they were free again.

Bo-Katan watched them leave until she felt something close around her legs.

Looking down, she found Della hugging them tightly.

“Thank you for helping me,” she said, still looking sad but not as much as she did before.

“It was my pleasure,” Bo-Katan smiled, patting her on the head. “Now run along, you don't want to miss your ride.”

Della smiled, then ran back to her father, who had been standing some distance back watching, then they both turned and with one last wave, headed for the transport.

“Another job well done,” Ursa said as she walked up.

“Yes... Well done,” Bo-Katan said quietly, watching the charity workers help the former slaves onboard.

“You okay?” Ursa asked.

“Fine,” Bo-Katan replied drily.

“If you say so,” Ursa snorted. “Come on, I want to get out of this rain and get back to my husband, he must be getting lonely without me,” she smirked.

“Spare me the details please,” Bo-Katan groaned. “I don't want to know.”

“You're not even a little bit curious?” Ursa teased.

“Nope, not even slightly,” Bo-Katan replied. “I still can't look at mess trays the same after last time you decided to... share.”

Ursa's cackle of a laugh echoed around the soon to be abandoned camp.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an incident caused by another Mandalorian group, Bo-Katan and her allies are forced to seek employment from individuals they normally wouldn't consider.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5 years later...

“Kriffing Cyclops's,” Bo-Katan growled as she scrolled through the list of current jobs and contract offers, one that had grown considerably shorter since one of the Cyclops's (another Mandalorian mercenary group that had left Mandalore only a year or two after them) clients had... refused to pay them for their services.

“Can't blame them really,” Ursa said from where she was sitting on the other side of their command centre. “We'd be pretty annoyed too if a client stiffed us.”

“Yeah, but cutting him into pieces and mailing him to his family is excessive,” Bo-Katan retorted, and Ursa hummed in agreement. “And it makes the rest of us look bad. Now, no one wants to hire us but the crime lords.”

“It'll blow over,” Ursa said soothingly. “And we've got plenty of credits put aside, we can handle a bad year or two.”

“But can you handle going that long without any decent work?” Bo-Katan asked.

Ursa grimaced.

“What kind of jobs are we being offered?” She asked.

“The usual cartel stuff,” Bo-Katan replied, tossing the datapad to her. “Nothing we'd normally take.”

“Yeah, but we need something,” Ursa said. “We haven't had a job for almost four months now, everyone's starting to get restless.”

“I know,” Bo-Katan sighed. “But protecting shipments of slaves or terrorising populations into serving them is not our style.”

“No, but how about this?” Ursa asked, reading one of the contracts. “Gratta the Hutt, one of the lesser members of the cartel, is offering five hundred thousand credits to disrupt the operations of one of his rivals, a smash and grab kinda job,” Ursa grinned. “We get paid and take out a criminal operation at the same time, sounds like a win-win to me.”

Bo-Katan groaned.

“Is that the best we've got?”

“At the moment, yeah,” Ursa replied. “But it's something easy and it'll only hurt the criminals, it's not like we're going to be capturing slaves or anything like that. Unless you want to go back home...”

“I suppose,” Bo-Katan grimaced. And by home, she knew Ursa didn't mean the moon they usually set up on between jobs. But she couldn't go back now, despite Mandalore thriving under Satine's rule, she couldn't bring herself to return to a pacifist Mandalore, no matter how much she wanted to, and not just to take back the last words she'd said to her sister. Not that she'd ever admit that to anyone. “Call everyone in, we'll talk about it, see what they think.”

“You got it boss,” Ursa smirked, throwing her a casual salute as she left the room.

“Why do I get the feeling this isn't going to end well?” Bo-Katan asked the now empty room.

  


* * *

  


As her ship descended into Nal Gratta's atmosphere, Bo-Katan couldn't help having second thoughts about their decision to take this job, and it wasn't because she objected to the job itself, it was more who they were doing the job for.

She'd didn't like Hutt's at the best of times and having to go work for one because they couldn't get work anywhere else annoyed her immensely.

Ursa on the other hand, was very keen to get on with it and kept offering reassurances that this would be easy work, easy money and the opportunity to blow up a whole lot of stuff.

It was hard to tell what she'd been more excited about, the money or the promise of absolute carnage in the near future.

As they burned through the atmosphere and entered the cloudy sky, they were hailed by the palace's air traffic controllers, and when she told them their reason for being here, was directed to land in the palace's landing bay.

Once her ship had settled onto it's landing skids, Bo-Katan unstrapped herself and turned to face the rest of the team that had accompanied her.

Ursa, Konrad and Sky, who had just celebrated her sixteenth birthday and been allowed to come as a celebration of her coming of age.

“Leave the talking to me,” she told them. “Unless someone is asking for it.”

They all nodded and she hit the ramp release and marched down to meet the welcoming party.

“Greetings,” the man who seemed to be the leader of them said. “The great Gratta the Hutt welcomes you to his glorious palace and requests that you meet him in his throne room, where he will discuss your business.”

“Lead the way then,” Bo-Katan nodded.

The man bowed, then turned around and began walking quickly inside, followed closely by the Mandalorians.

He led them through a number of halls and corridors, each filled with numerous beings of a dozen species, all of which backed away or bowed respectfully as they passed.

Bo-Katan frowned beneath her helmet, all these people seemed terrified of them, yet they didn't have the kind of reputation the Death Watch or the Eyes of Cyclops had, unless they just assumed we're all like that.

That thought made her angry for some reason, and she was practically fuming when the man led them into the throne room, where the great Hutt lay.

“Greetings Lord Gratta,” Bo-Katan said politely as they approached him. “We're here to inform you that we accept your contract and are ready to begin.”

Gratta laughed.

“Good,” he rumbled. “This is why I like your kind, always straight to the point, no mucking around,” he chuckled.

“Who has the time to muck around?” Bo-Katan replied.

“Ha,” Gratta exclaimed. “No one that matters, not like half the scum in this galaxy, wasting my time with trivial matters.”

“Sounds like we're very alike,” Bo-Katan said. “Why don't we get down to business, then we can get on with dealing with whoever it that's stealing your business.”

Gratta let out another rumble of a chuckle.

“I can see we're going to get very well,” he said with another laugh. “Now, to business.”

Bo-Katan nodded and stepped closer as one of his servants brought forth a holo map and a datapad of details.

“This is the operation I want you to deal with,” Gratta began, jabbing a fat finger at the map. “These pirates have been stealing my profits by undercutting my spice trade, all the details are in this datapad, deal with them swiftly and you shall be well rewarded.”

Bo-Katan took the offered datapad and nodded.

“We'll take care of them,” she promised, turning to leave. “I'll tell them Lord Gratta sends his regards.”

The Hutt's booming laugh followed them down the hall and back to their ship.

  


* * *

  


As their fighters screamed over the pirate's base on Riileb, Bo-Katan couldn't help the smirk that formed on her face as she strafed their air defences, the explosions rocking her ship as she flew through them and turned around for another run. It felt good to blow stuff up again.

Behind her, came the rest of her force, some in fighters like her, the rest in assault shuttles, ready to deploy once the base had been softened up.

After the second pass, the pirates stopped shooting back and Bo-Katan gave the order to land and take the camp while she and the other fighters provided any air support that might be required.

But nothing was.

Either they'd hit them harder than she thought, or this bunch of pirates was just more cowardly than most as they barely put up token resistance before the whole base surrendered and Ursa informed her that the base was theirs and she was clear to land.

Bo-Katan circled once more, then set her ship down in the middle of the camp as one of their transports landed near the base's warehouses to begin loading up whatever goods they had in there.

As she climbed down from her fighter, Sky came running up to her.

“Commander,” she said, casually saluting. “Ursa wants you to meet her in the main courtyard area, we took the leader and most of his men alive, she wants to know what to do with them.”

“Alright, lead the way,” Bo-Katan nodded.

Sky took off, setting a pace that wasn't quite running, but pretty close to it and Bo-Katan snorted to herself, remembering the time when she had that much energy to spare.

The courtyard itself wasn't far, and they reached it in less than a minute.

Bo-Katan was surprised, by the looks of it there were almost a hundred pirates in there, all Weequays, guarded by about half that many Mandalorians. And on the side closest to her stood Ursa, looking incredibly annoyed as what had to be the leader of the gang stood in front of her, arguing at the top of his voice.

“This is outrageous!” He yelled when Ursa gave no response. “I demand to talk to whoever is in charge of your rabble.”

“That would be me,” Bo-Katan said drily as she approached them, mildly impressed with the guy's nerve. It took a lot of guts to argue with a fully armoured Mandalorian when they were holding you and your men hostage.

“About time,” the pirate muttered, waving Ursa off like he was dismissing her.

Ursa didn't take that too well and looked like she was about to cut him up into little pieces when Bo-Katan shook her head slightly and she backed off, still looking furious.

“I am the great Hondo Ohnaka, though you probably knew that,” he said by way of introduction. “And I am but a simple businessman, so why do you come into my place, guns blazing with not even a warning or reason, I'm very disappointed in you, I thought Mando's had class,” he shook his head, doing the disapproving act very well, and she might even have believed him if she didn't know he was a pirate.

“Nice try,” she replied. “But my employer knows exactly what you're doing here and he will no longer tolerate competition to his spice business.”

“Ack, you wound me, I would never partake in such an illegal and lucrative trade, we buy and sell grains and other foodstuffs, nothing illegal I promise you.”

“Then why do the people I have searching your warehouse tell me it's full of spice?” She asked.

“That's not mine,” he retorted. “I don't know who put it there.”

“Spare me,” Bo-Katan growled. “Gratta the Hutt will not tolerate anymore infringements on his business interests, so I suggest you get off this world and move as far away as you can, because if we have to come back, we won't be so merciful.”

Honda laughed.

“Ahh, that is good joke,” he chuckled. “Telling Hondo what to do, priceless, you should be a comedian.”

Bo-Katan decided it was best to just ignore him now and began walking away as one of her team reported in via comm.

_“We've secured all the spice commander.”_

“Very good,” she replied. “Okay everyone, let's get off this scum hole.”

“I object!” Hondo shouted.

“Shut up!” Bo-Katan retorted as she and the rest of her forces left the courtyard and returned to their ships.

Their fighters covered them as they they boarded and took off, but only a couple of pirates were stupid enough to chase them, and even those ones didn't fire at them as the lifted off and headed for space.

 _“Too easy,”_ Ursa said as they got ready to jump to hyperspace. _“I almost feel bad taking this Hutt's money.”_

“I don't,” Bo-Katan smirked as she locked in the coordinates for Nal Gratta and jumped to hyperspace.

  


* * *

  


“The great Gratta the Hutt is most pleased with your success,” the man, who she assumed was Gratta's majordomo, told them as he led them back to the throne room.

“Good,” Bo-Katan nodded.

The man obviously expected her to say more, as he stared at her for a moment, but when she said nothing further he returned his attention to where they were going.

“Yes, he is most pleased and has many other jobs for you if you are interested.”

“Why not,” Ursa said through their helmet comm. “We need something to do till things pick up again.”

Bo-Katan nodded slightly at Ursa, then turned back to their guide.

“I'm listening.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 6 years later...

“Where the kriff did they come from?!” Bo-Katan shouted, as another company of heavily armed soldiers joined the one that was already attacking them.

“No idea,” Ursa growled, returning fire and putting down two enemies that decided it was a good idea to rush their position. “Vizsla’s men didn’t say anything about a battalion of shock troops in their reports.”

“No, or the tanks, or heavy speeders,” Bo-Katan hissed as one of the tanks fired a high explosive round into their position, reducing the building they’d been hiding behind to rubble, sending them both flying.

“We need to fall back and regroup,” Ursa said, crouching behind what little cover they had left.

“Yeah,” Bo-Katan muttered, picking herself up from where she’d been blown to. “Tell everyone to fall back to point tango, we’ll regroup there and come up with a new plan.”

“Already on it,” Ursa informed her.

“And where the hell did the Death Watch go? They’re supposed to be supporting us on this mission.”

“No idea,” Ursa repeated. “No one’s seen so much as a helmet since we started the attack.”

“Well they have a kriffing good reason, or else I’m going to-” Bo-Katan began, but was cut off by another explosion going off near them.

“Plot vengeance later, we need to get out of here now,” Ursa urged, practically dragging Bo-Katan behind her as she fell back.

When they reached the rendezvous point, most of her people were already waiting, all with various injuries and too many missing helmets.

“Thirteen dead,” Ursa told her quietly.

Bo-Katan growled in frustration, anger and regret. This was supposed to have been a relatively easy mission, just another of the scores of missions they’d done for Gratta over the last six years.

Their job was to raid one of his rivals' vaults and take whatever they could from it, particularly credits, spice and any other rare items they found, but it was challenging enough that he’d also wanted to hire the Death Watch to assist in the operation, which she had agreed to. Something Bo-Katan was regretting now, since it looked like they’d just run and left them to face the heavily reinforced defences alone.

“How’s everyone else looking?” She asked after a moment.

“Pretty banged up,” Ursa said with a grimace. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think we can complete the mission with so many people dead or injured.”

“Kriff,” Bo-Katan muttered quietly.

“Yeah,” Ursa agreed. “But we can come back and finish the job later, right now we need to get out of here before they catch up to us.”

Bo-Katan nodded stiffly and Ursa began shouting orders, telling everyone to get back to their ships and head back to Nal Gratta, that they weren’t defeated, it was just a strategic retreat.

Bo-Katan sighed as she headed for her own ship, failing to complete a mission always felt bad, but this was worse, having to retreat because someone screwed up the intel, or even worse, someone leaked their mission details. 

She was going to find out who was responsible, she promised herself as she boarded her ship, and will suffer her wrath.

  


* * *

  


Bo-Katan wasn’t looking forward to the coming conversation, neither was Gratta’s Majordomo, if his body language was any indication. News of their failure must have arrived ahead of them, the man only looked this afraid when Gratta was in a bad mood. Another reason she’d told everyone else to stay with their ships, she didn’t want them to suffer his wrath as well.

Just great, Bo-Katan thought as they walked into the throne room and were met with dead silence.

“Bo-Katan has returned, my lord,” the Majordomo announced before retreating to a safe distance from his master.

“Soooo… You have failed me Bo-Katan,” he rumbled.

“Unfortunately yes,” she replied, unfazed. “The target was more heavily defended than we were informed and the Death Watch never showed up to support us.”

“Pah, don’t hide behind your feeble excuses!” Gratta roared. “You have failed me and there are consequences for that.”

“We haven’t failed yet,” Bo-Katan shot back. “We just need a day to regroup, then we’ll strike back, we won’t be taken by surprise again.”

“No, you won’t,” Gratta agreed, and Bo-Katan let out an internal sigh of relief, until Gratta opened his mouth again. “Your services are no longer wanted here and to pay for the losses you have caused me, I have made an arrangement with another party that is interested in you.”

As he said that, a few figures in Mandalorian armour stepped forward, one’s that had the hideous eye that the Cyclops’s used as their symbol.

Suddenly, Bo-Katan got the feeling that things weren’t going to turn out well for them and tried to call the rest of her people at the landing pad, but got only static in response.

“And what kind of arrangement is it?” she asked, letting her hands drop to her blasters.

“A profitable one,” Gratta laughed, and before Bo-Katan could react, one of the Cyclops’s raised his weapon and fired.

And instead of the blaster bolt she was expecting, a small cartridge flew out and attached to her armour.

For a brief second, nothing happened, but she knew what was coming. An instant later, the charge in the cartridge fired and she dropped to the ground, screaming as it poured electricity into her, leaving her writhing on the ground, unable to do anything.

And she could only watch as the Cyclops’s walked over to her, unable to react as one brought his blaster down on her head.

Darkness claimed her instantly.

  


* * *

  


Consciousness returned slowly to Bo-Katan, accompanied by a throbbing pain in her head.

Groaning quietly, she opened her eyes, grimacing at the extra pain that gave her and looked around.

She was lying on a bench against a wall alongside dozens of other benches, some of which were occupied, others were empty. The wall directly across from her also appeared to be made of bars.

Groaning again, she slowly sat up to get a better view.

Yes, they were bars, which meant she was in a cell of some kind. But before she could recall exactly why she was in one, a voice called out to her.

“Ahh, you’re finally awake,” Ursa grimaced as she walked up to her and sat down beside her. “How’re you feeling?”

“Awful, but I’ll live,” Bo-Katan replied. “Where are we?”

“We are currently guests of the Cyclops’s, and they told us earlier that we would have the honour of fighting in their arena for the entertainment of the masses,” Ursa said sarcastically, idly fingering the slave collar Bo-Katan noticed she now had around her neck.

“How did that happen,” Bo-Katan grimaced as another spark of pain shot through her head.

“Mighty Gratta was most displeased with our failure and sold us to them,” Ursa growled, hands clenched into fists. “Now we’re gladiator slaves, here to fight to the death until we die too.”

“Did anyone escape?” Bo-Katan asked quietly.

“I don’t think so,” Ursa replied. “But I did manage to send a warning back to base, so they know what’s happened.”

“Not much that they can do about it though,” Bo-Katan sighed. “Most of them aren’t warriors and the rest are just children.”

“Perhaps, but I wouldn’t write them off just yet, they’re still Mandalorians, after all.”

“I know,” Bo-Katan said. “But I don’t want to be counting on a rescue that never comes, if we want to escape, we’ll have to do it ourselves.”

Ursa nodded.

“I’ll call the others together later and we can discuss our options, for now though, rest, you took quite a knock to your head and you’ve been out for two days now, we were getting worried.”

“Fine,” Bo-Katan grimaced, carefully laying back down. “Let me know if anything comes up.”

“Will do,” Ursa promised, giving her friend's shoulder a squeeze, before she stood again and went off to check on someone else.

Bo-Katan resisted the urge to groan again as the throbbing in her head increased, and tried to think of a way out of their situation.

But nothing occurred to her and this time she did groan as she closed her eyes.

She wasn’t giving up, she just needed more time.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bo-Katan and the others get a taste of what their new life will be like...

“GET UP MAGGOTS!” 

That shout rang through their cell, waking Bo-Katan and her people, who scrambled to their feet, many taking up combat stances, to the amusement of their captors.

“Come on, line up, you’ve got a big day today,” they laughed.

Bo-Katan sneered at them as she lined up with the rest of her people. At the best of times she hated being told what to do, now, after a week of sitting in this cell being taunted by their guards, well, let just say it wouldn’t be pretty if she got her hands on them.

Of course, all that was wishful thinking, there wasn’t anything she could actually do about it in her current situation, and that knowledge made her feel even worse as she watched her people form a line, some looking as furious as she felt, others looking miserable and dejected.

“Alright, you’ll follow me and you’ll behave yourselves,” the lead guard told them as he unlocked the doors. “We wouldn’t want a repeat of yesterday’s incident now, would we?”

Bo-Katan felt her blood boil at that.

Yesterday, Kovic, one of her men, had attempted to overpower the guards and escape, but had been stunned easily and thrown back in. They’d all expected him to be punished, but instead, one of the guards had chosen someone else at random and executed them on the spot in his place.

That had effectively killed everyone else's thoughts of attempting to escape, as the Cyclops’s made it very clear that those that remained would be punished if anyone tried anything else.

So they had to bide their time, wait for just the right moment to escape and take whatever was thrown at them in the meantime.

It didn’t make it any easier to stand there and take it though, Bo-Katan thought as she filed out with the rest of her people.

The guards led them down a series of corridors and into a large chamber filled with rows of racks and shelves that held an assortment of weapons and armour.

“You will equip yourselves as you see fit,” one of the guards informed them. “Then you will be taken to the arena to fight in glorious combat against some of the toughest opponents the galaxy has to offer. This is a great honour and you will die well.”

“Couldn’t ask for anything more,” Ursa said sarcastically, turning her back on them and beginning to look through their options.

Bo-Katan did the same, grimacing as she looked over the leather armour, knives and other close combat weapons that they’d have to use to keep themselves alive.

The rest of her people soon followed, picking up various bits of armour and close combat weapons, nothing fantastic, but nothing to sneeze at either.

After about twenty minutes, they were all armoured up, looking rather ridiculous, Bo-Katan thought, like performers of one of the ancient plays that used to be performed on Mandalore.

But still, she was reasonably happy with what she’d chosen, a pair of short swords, five throwing daggers and one larger one as a backup weapon and for armour, she’d chosen a leather breastplate, leather gauntlets, shin pads and a durasteel helm.

“Alright, come on then, we haven’t got all day,” the guards said when they saw that they were finished, leading them from that room and into another, larger room that was filled with other beings equipped as they were, looking out across a sandy arena.

“You’ll wait here until you’re called,” the guards told them as they closed and locked the doors behind them. “Then,” he chuckled. “You go and die.”

The rest of the guards laughed as they walked away, leaving the prisoners to figure out what was coming.

“What do you think we’ll be up against?” Ursa asked quietly as they walked over to a spot where they could look out at the arena.

“I don’t know,” Bo-Katan replied. “But it’s probably going to be creatures of some kind, Nexu’s, Gundarks, that kind of thing.”

“Great,” Ursa muttered as a roar went up from the crowd they couldn’t see.

They looked around and saw that a group of Twi’leks had entered the arena and were looking around nervously.

“Poor sods,” Ursa muttered as they watched, Bo-Katan hummed in agreement.

Another roar went up as gates on the opposite side of the arena opened and a pack of Akk dogs raced out.

The Twi’leks huddled close together with their ragged assortment of weapons pointed towards the dogs.

“This isn’t going to be pretty,” Bo-Katan muttered as Sky and Konrad joined them.

It wasn’t.

The Akk dogs had evidently been trained well, as they worked together to pick off the Twi’leks one by one and rip them to pieces, to the cheers of the audience.

The Twi’leks were followed by two groups of assorted beings, who proceeded to fight to the death, with only one survivor left standing at the end.

After that, a Rancor was brought out, along with another group of people who proceeded to become it’s lunch.

By that point, Bo-Katan had stopped watching, though she could still hear every scream, every cry of pain.

Eventually, their turn came.

The guards asked for volunteers to go first, so it ended up being Ursa, Konrad, Sky and herself.

They were led out of the room and around to the gates where they would be pushed through to the arena.

“Good luck,” one of the guards said, to roars of laughter from his fellows as they shoved them out into the arena.

The crowd went wild as they stumbled out, cheering, yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs.

“Stick together until we know what we’re facing,” Bo-Katan ordered.

“Right,” Ursa nodded, swinging her large, spiked club a couple of times.

Sky and Konrad nodded too, taking up defensive stances beside her as they waited and Bo-Katan was proud to see that none of them looked the least bit concerned with their situation. Ursa even looked a little bit excited.

“Whatever it is, we can handle it,” Bo-Katan said quietly, getting smirks and other signs of agreement from Sky, Konrad and Ursa as the gates on the other side opened again.

From out of the doors came two Gundarks, snarling and growling as they charged towards them.

Bo-Katan dove aside at the last moment, followed closely by Sky, while Ursa and Konrad went the other way, dividing the Gundarks as each chased after one pair.

“You fought a Gundark before?” Bo-Katan asked Sky as they dodged another attack.

“Nope, but I know the theory,” she smirked, slashing at one of its extended arms with her sword, making it howl in pain.

The Gundark backed off a bit, eyeing them furiously before charging in again.

This time, they held their ground as it ran towards them, only to drop low as it got close.

The Gundark tried to slow down to get at them, but it was too big and going too fast and as it went over them, they thrusted their swords into it’s unprotected belly, getting more howls of pain from it.

Rolling out of the way quickly so that they weren’t crushed as it collapsed to the ground, they then went to its head and put it out of its misery.

On the other side of the arena, Ursa and Konrad had finished off theirs as well and were currently bowing to the audience as the crowd cheered.

Bo-Katan grimaced and turned and headed back to the gates that had opened again to let them back in.

“Easy,” Ursa said as she and Konrad joined them.

“That was just the warm up,” one of the guards said with an evil laugh. “We’ve got something much better planned for you, later.”

The rest of the guards laughed as well and Bo-Katan had to resist the urge to ram her sword down his throat.

It would make her feel better, but only until her slave collar was triggered.

“Come on,” she said quietly instead, gripping Ursa's shoulder to stop her from doing anything rash. “We can handle anything they can throw at us.”

“I know,” Ursa growled. “These wannabes need to be put in their place though.”

“And they will be,” Bo-Katan whispered back. “We just need to wait for the right moment.”

“Fine,” Ursa gritted out, looking like saying that caused her pain. 

Bo-Katan didn’t say anything back, merely patting her shoulder as they were led back to the waiting room, hoping the right moment wasn’t too far away.


End file.
